I've got a Mac Pro, the famously quiet workstation
except that mine isn't, it makes a really annoying whirring noise and has done since the day I bought it. My toleration exhausted, I decided to do something about it. By careful listening, it became clear that one of the front fans has a bearing issue.
OK, pop the side off and have a look: neat fan assembly, two screws, shouldn't be difficult. Even found the service manual on Scribd to check the instructions, yes it really is only two screws (after all, they do design these things for manufacture). OK, so just need a replacement part, machine is still under warranty and I've got AppleCare.
I'm within range of of an Apple service provider so should be an on-site visit. Ah, no, the service centre doesn't actually do repairs, they send it away, so no on-site repair and about a week turnaround.
OK, never mind, just send me the part, I'll fit it myself. Umm, no, not a user-serviceable part so can't do that. Why not take it to a Genius Bar?
Hmm, OK, that's Bristol, quite a long drive, I want to make sure I've got an appointment before travelling. Let's see, [clickity clack] Apple ... [clickity clack] Retail ... [clickity clack] Cabot Circus ... [clickity clack] Genius Bar ... [clickity clack] Make reservation. Looks promising.
Hmm, am I a guest or a member?
Member of what? OK, I'll try my Apple login, yup, but now confirm my One-to-One membership? I don't have that, it's for training and I don't need that. Why do I need training to use the Genius Bar to get my under-warranty computer fixed? Let's try "Guest". OK, I need the Genius Bar ... and I'd like help with my Mac.
No reservations available.
Well how about telling me when some reservations might become available?
Let's try POTS*. Dum dee dum ... 3 for reservations ... oh, "go to the website to book a reservation".
OK, let's try again, after all they did say try again later. Wow, this time there are reservation slots available. Choose an available day, from a choice of one. And a time, ditto, and a slot. Not much choice going on here is there. Must be a cancellation.
Now, is it just me or does anyone else anticipate that I'll lug my Mac Pro 80 odd miles only to find they don't have the requisite part in stock and I'll have to come back another time?
At this point I am thinking about my brother's experience with Dell support, they may have been incompetent in shipping duplicate spare parts, but at least he got on-site service.
So perhaps I can take it somewhere else and actually talk to a human being? Back to the web and look up my local service provider. To cut a long story short, after discussing the problem and the part needed they told me that I was entitled to on-site service. And they turned up when promised, sorted the fan quickly and efficiently and disappeared.
So why did Apple's service process completely fail at several points to offer me the on-site service that I had paid for?
*Plain Old Telephony
yep - half the problem, we've found, is that we expect them to be evasive, and behave accordingly, but they're not - just trying to be helpful, but also efficient ...
am beginning to think of going for an Pro - we had desktops before (IIfx, then a G4), but went for an iMac (& a couple of MacBooks) last time ... which have been good, but ...
the new Mac Mini looks good ... thinking of getting on to go with the EyeTV, that we currently run on a Macbook Pro ... wonder if it's possible to have more than one (EyeTV) plugged-in at once, to give up to four channels simultaneously ?
I don't think this was a case of them trying to be helpful. Although the chap on the Apple help line was very polite, when I asked about an on-site call and indicated I had AppleCare at no point was an on-site call offered and I was directed to my local service centre. Similarly the website doesn't mention it anywhere I could find. Obviously they want to control costs, but I had paid for the AppleCare extension. I was not that impressed, to be honest.
I got this old model Pro as soon as the new ones were announced, I couldn't afford the 2-chip one and the cheaper model seemed like a rip-off, much less maximum memory capacity for a start. If I was buying again today I'd be quite tempted by the new widescreen iMac...
yep, annoying !
our iMac started pausing for thought every few minutes a day or two ago ... hoping it's just a case of needing to run Disk Utility for a quick repair !
BTW, quite like your Captcha facility ...